Phil Stambaugh is among those hoping to put on a good offensive show in the McDonald's Classic

MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO

Former Pius X football coach Phil Stambaugh is the head coach for the Northampton County/Palisades/Phillipsburg squad, otherwise known as the Gold team, in the McDonald's Lehigh Valley All-Star Football Classic.

Former Pius X football coach Phil Stambaugh is the head coach for the Northampton County/Palisades/Phillipsburg squad, otherwise known as the Gold team, in the McDonald's Lehigh Valley All-Star Football Classic. (MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO)

Phil Stambaugh is among those hoping to put on a good offensive show in the McDonald's Classic

The fathers of Phil Stambaugh and Jim Terwilliger were once teammates on championship East Stroudsburg University football teams back in the 1970s.

Mike Terwilliger was a top-notch quarterback and Mike Stambaugh was a standout defensive end on Warriors teams that were a combined 19-0-1 in the 1975 and '76 seasons and had one PSAC state championship and tied for another.

Some 40 years later, their sons are making their mark in local high school football.

Both will be instrumental in Thursday night's 45th annual McDonald's Lehigh Valley All-Star Football Classic at Nazareth's Andy Leh Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Stambaugh, the former Pius X coach and current Notre Dame assistant, is the head coach for the Northampton County/Palisades/Phillipsburg squad, otherwise known as the Gold team.

Terwilliger is the offensive coordinator for the Lehigh/Carbon/Monroe County squad, the Red team.

They are both high-energy, innovative, former quarterbacks who will look to take advantage of the offense-friendly rules for the all-star game and turn it into a high-scoring extravaganza.

Terwilliger has record-breaking Southern Lehigh quarterback Travis Edmond as one of his quarterbacks.

Stambaugh also has plenty of offensive weapons at his disposal.

"I have been very impressed with Dalvyn Reynolds, the running back from Easton, and Justin Albert, the quarterback from Nazareth, and Josiah Wright, a wide receiver from Liberty," Stambaugh said. "Defensively, Cameron Brusko from Liberty, Cory Croll from Northampton and Alex Bartleson from Pen Argyl have stood out throughout practice."

Kyle Beller played on the 1996 Dieruff team that upset Central Catholic, then the state's No. 1 ranked team, in the regular season and James Mungro and East Stroudsburg High School in the District 11 Class 4A playoffs.

The following June, six Huskies were selected for the McDonald's Lehigh Valley...

(Keith Groller)

Stambaugh has been impressed with the attitude and work ethic of the kids on his team.

"It's the one that has stood out from the other all-star games that I've been a part of," Stambaugh said. "The kids who cared about being there and showed up on time for practice, communicated well and kept a good attitude throughout practice … those are the ones that generally went on to have the most success in the game.

"I've seen all of those trends with this group. I've been very pleased and it's been a very positive experience so far through a week-and-a-half of practice. I thanked the kids a couple of times for their dedication and commitment. I expect them to play well."

Stambaugh has been trying to prepare his kids for the fast pace of the game.

"I've told them that they have to be ready to go," Stambaugh said. "It's going to be played at a faster pace than what we can replicate in practice. Everybody's going to play and we want to see them showcase their talents and have some fun, all for a great cause."

Unlike the Red team, which had trouble getting in full practices because of the recent bad weather, Stambaugh said the rain has had little effect on his team.

Of course, there's a chance of rain for the game, but Stambaugh said he's not going to worry about it.

"The kids want to play on Thursday night and we're just going to hope we can get it in," he said. "We've been fortunate to beat the rain a few times. In fact, we just got off the field on Tuesday night when it started raining pretty hard. Hopefully, we can play the game as scheduled."

"It's going to rain in the morning and probably up through lunch time, but the chance for rain goes way down by 7," she said. "We'll keep looking at a couple of different forecasts and see what they say.

"Friday is our rain date, but we're hoping to get the game in on Thursday. There have been a few years when we have postponed to other dates. In 2007, when we were at Parkland when Nazareth's field was getting turf, we moved to Friday night. And in 2003, we moved to Monday night because of rain."

Pittman said PIAA rules would apply if a thunderstorm pops up. At the first sight of a lightning flash, play would be stopped for a minimum of a half-hour.

Pittman will consult with other committee members on any weather-related decision.

"We'll review all the data and go from there," she said. "If there's a thunderstorm and a torrential downpour, we'll go to Friday night. We would like to play the game on Thursday because you don't know who has plans to go to the shore on Friday morning or someplace else. We don't want to lose them. We've been pretty lucky through the years, so let's hope our luck doesn't run out."

If a decision is made to postpone, it would likely come around 3 or 3:30 p.m.

"Some of the kids have to travel a good distance to get to Nazareth, and we have a lot of other people who need to know whether or not to be there, so we have to make the decision as early as we can," Pittman said.